South Downs Bee Orchid

How about this for a stunning little orchid!? When I see British wild flowers like this I marvel at how wonderful nature can be. Goodness knows how or why this little flower evolved to look like a bee, but that’s only half of the mystery of the bee orchid.

Pyramidal orchids on an evening in June

A big white white orchid that looks like a hyacinth!

The start of the season saw a few setbacks with very few Early Purple Orchids or Cowslips. But things have improved a little and there are now lots of Common Spotted Orchids, Twayblades and these lovely Greater Butterfly Orchids.

Bepton Down Orchids

I’ve written before about the plight of Bepton Down. This year the Down has struggled. It’s an SSSI but the weather and some land management problems caused some problems for the early flowers. There were very few Cowslips and the Early Purple Orchids just didn’t show at all.

Set-aside agricultural land

If you’ve driven along the road between Midhurst and Petworth this week and you’ll almost certainly have spotted this impressive field of poppies. When I stopped to take a photograph I had to queue to get into the field behind another four photographers, one of whom had traveled from Portsmouth to see these flowers!

Counting weeds

There’s an old footpath near our office in Farnborough that runs behind Asda and B&Q. I was looking for ‘an Act of Wildness’ at lunchtime so I headed onto this urban footpath in search of inspiration – and to get out of the wind and the rain!

Bluebell season is coming to an end…

Here’s a carpet of Bluebells near Benbow Pond just outside Midhurst. The location is on the Cowdray Estate in an area that has been untouched for hundreds of years. It’s a magical spot and there literally are thousands and thousands of Bluebells!

What’s it about?

Ramblings and random thoughts about the village of Bepton and the surrounding area including Didling, Cocking, Midhurst and the Severals, the nearby South Downs, Chichester and the West Sussex coast.
Mostly about nature, the environment, history, heritage, food, wine, events and just about anything else that catches our eye!

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